Conventional hygienic absorbent articles such as sanitary napkins, incontinence pads and the like are provided with an absorbent core which, in theory, is capable of absorbing all the fluid normally discharged by the wearer over an intended exposure time of the article. However, leakage can arise if the absorbent article is not maintained in proper relation with the wearer. One attempt to overcome this problem is to provide a sanitary napkin with so called wings. However, winged sanitary napkins also suffer from certain drawbacks. For example, if a particularly heavy discharge occurs, fluid may spread over the topsheet of the napkin and escape over the wings to thereby stain adjacent clothing. In addition, many wearers regard winged sanitary napkins as being too indiscrete.
Due to their relative narrowness, when sanitary napkins do leak this generally occurs at the side edges. Many attempts have been made to overcome the problem of edge leakage, including that described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,666,439. In said document, a sanitary napkin is disclosed which comprises an elongate absorbent core having a liquid pervious sheet over its front face and a liquid impervious barrier sheet over its back face. The liquid impervious barrier sheet has edge portions which cover the longitudinal sides and the side margins at the front face of the absorbent core. In an effort to inhibit leakage of body fluids from the front surface of the absorbent pad to the sides thereof, said document teaches providing a layer of water absorbing polymer in contact with a surface of the barrier sheet in the longitudinal edge portions.
Whilst the sanitary napkin according to said U.S. Pat. No. 4,666,439 may exhibit improved side edge leakage protection when compared to a conventional sanitary napkin, a need still exists for a sanitary which reduces further the risk of side edge leakage whilst still being sufficiently discrete to satisfy the majority of wearers. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an absorbent article which meets these requirements.